God declares the end from the beginning…

A college student named Jeffery Bartell wrote a paper in 1949. He concluded that the time immediately preceding the prophesied return of Jesus Christ had begun.

The scriptures make it clear that no one knows the day or the hour of Christ’s return. But the Bible does say that we can know the times and seasons surrounding His coming. Never before have the conditions been possible for so much of endtime Bible prophecy to be fulfilled as today. You may be thinking, “…so, because disease and immorality are running rampant, and because there are wars and rumors of wars, and that we have had a few more earthquakes, that Jesus is coming back soon? We’ve heard all that before.”

To Bartell, the Bible is the greatest book ever written. Its message is so simple that it could be summed up in just a few verses. Yet at the same time, it’s a book with so much depth, that you could study it a lifetime, and still not understand all its truth. Bartell’s theory about the endtime started when he read a verse in Isaiah chapter 46. It says that God declares the end from the beginning. A similar passage is found in Isaiah chapter 48. This lead Bartell back to the beginning, to the book of Genesis and the creation story. As he studied the first chapter, he began to wonder why God took six days to create the world, and rest on the seventh. Why would he take six days when he could have created the world in one second, in the blink of an eye?

Bartell studied the words “day” and “days” in the Bible. He discovered some interesting passages that related to this. He concluded that perhaps God was indicating to us how much time man would have on the earth.

Bartell makes the point that the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, is full of foreshadowing. An event that actually happened in history, also pictures something coming in the future. An example would be when Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac. That event actually happened, and it was also a picture of what God would do with his son Jesus on the cross, as an offering for the sins of the world. Now, why would God take six days to create the world? Is this a picture of something that we need to know? Bartel thinks it is.

In 2nd Peter 3:8, the context is referring to the second coming of Christ. The Bible says that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. In Psalms 90 it says that a thousand years in God’s sight are but as yesterday. So, could it be that the six days of creation were to indicate to us, the time man would have on this Earth would be about six thousand years? …The seventh day of rest picturing the thousand year millennial reign, when Christ comes back to set up his Earthly kingdom. The time of righteousness and peace.

Bartell documents in his paper how Bible scholars have calculated from the first man, Adam, to the first coming of Jesus to be about four thousand years. If that’s the case, then we could be living right at the end of what the New Testament calls “the last days”.

Bartell makes a big issue about how God deals with time in the Bible. When God measures time, He does so by sevens. God created the world in seven days, with the seventh day being a day of rest. According to the Old Testament law, the Jews were commanded to rest every seven days. The seventh week after the Passover, they celebrated a big feast of rest. The seventh month was perhaps the most important when they celebrated three of their biggest feasts of rest. Every seventh year was a year of rest for the land. Every 49 years, seven times seven, they celebrated the year of Jubilee, which is a year of rest for the land and liberty for the people.

So it made sense to Bartell that God would set up a seven thousand year period for man to occupy the Earth; with the last thousand years being a time of rest when Jesus comes back to set up His Earthly kingdom, as spoken of in Revelation chapter 20. Bartell was right when he says that when God deals with time, He does so by sevens. There’s no other more predominant system in the word of God. The second coming of Christ is the most important day on God’s calendar. Bartell was convinced that He wants us to know about it, including the timing.

Hosea was a prophet in the Old Testament. In chapter six of that book, Hosea talks about Israel, God’s chosen nation who was always rejecting God. The nation was going to be torn apart, but verse two says: “After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.” What does this mean? When Jesus came, Israel rejected Him as their messiah, so God scattered the nation of Israel all over the world. For 1900 years there was no nation of Israel, but God says that after two days, or two thousand years, “I will revive thee, and you, Israel, will live in my sight.”

The scattered Israel became a nation again in the year 1948. This is important because God is reviving the nation of Israel and they are about to live in His sight, when Jesus comes back to set up His Earthly kingdom. Have you ever met a Canaanite? How about an Amorite? No. Because these were Israel’s enemies and they have not been preserved. The Jews have been preserved because they are God’s chosen people, and He must fulfill and keep the promises He made to them. But the Jews are still rejecting Christ. For how long? “After two days (or two thousand years) I will revive thee, and in the third day you shall live in my sight.” The second-coming events are about to begin.

Bartell sees the same foreshadowing in Exodus chapter 19:11. God told Israel to clean up and wait for two days. The third day I’m coming down in the sight of all the nation.

In John chapter 11, Lazarus, a Jew, has died. Jesus waits two days before raising him from the dead. Why? Bartell says this pictures how God is about to turn his back on Israel for the next two thousand years (or two days), and start reaching out to the rest of the world through the New Testament church; which He did.

God didn’t just throw that stuff in the Bible to waste space. Maybe Bartell is right, maybe God is trying to tell us something. Bartell points out that in Matthew chapter 17:1 that Jesus takes Peter, James and John up to the mountain, apart from the rest of the group. What, you ask, happens up there? Jesus is transfigured before them, and they are given a preview of His second coming glory. Now, the first words of that line in scripture are “after six days”. Why did God throw this in? Is He just wasting space again, or is God perhaps trying to tell us something that we need to know?

Remember, the time from Adam to Christ is 4 thousand years (or four days). The time of the church period is two thousand years (or two days). So could this mean that after six thousand years (or six days) God would revive Israel and fulfill the promises he made to them? Now, either Bartell is reading too much between the lines, or God is trying to tell us something.

What He is trying to tell us is the kingdom of God is about to begin… the day of rest (or the one thousand year reign of Christ on earth). The resurrected believers, and the believers who are alive when Jesus returns, will reign as kings and priests on Earth (Revelation 5:10).

The preceding was an adaptation taken from a Christian video titled: END OF THE HARVEST.